Thomas McGovern
Thomas H McGovern is a zooarchaeologist and active in Historical Ecology of the North Atlantic region. He collaborates internationally through the NABO (North Atlantic Biocultural Organization) cooperative (www.nabohome.org) and is a professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York, Hunter College and Graduate Center.
Address: Anthropology Dept
Hunter College CUNY
695 Park Ave
NYC 10065 USA
Address: Anthropology Dept
Hunter College CUNY
695 Park Ave
NYC 10065 USA
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The contributors in this volume revisit “tragedy of the commons” (also referred to as “drama” or “comedy” of the commons) and examine new data and theories to mitigate pressures and devise models for sustainable communal welfare and development. They present twelve archaeological, historic, and ethnographic cases of user-managed resources to demonstrate that very basic community-level participatory governance can be a successful strategy to manage short-term risk and benefits. The book connects past-present-future by presenting geographically and chronologically spaced out examples of communal-level governance strategies and overviews of the current cutting-edge research. The lesson we learn from studying past responses to various ecological stresses is that we must not wait for a disaster to happen to react, but must react to mitigate conditions for emerging disasters.